Monday, November 27, 2006

Yet Another Person Who Doesn't Get the "Borat" Joke

Got your note, deeply honored. Being new to the company, really appreciate opportunity to outline some ideas for “Borat” DVD. As Josh mentioned, we do indeed have a wealth of footage that could be put to good use as DVD extras. In other cases, have taken liberty of suggesting some reshoots:

OPENING “VILLAGE” SECTION: How about a high-speed montage of the actual difficult, brutal lives of the villagers in Romania—the hours of debilitating toil, their oppression at the hands of their corrupt government, premature loss of teeth, death of infants, etc., etc.—culminating in a panning shot of the village on the morning of the day when they first realize they’ve been had, and that, as far as posterity goes, they will always be remembered, if remembered at all, as savages, rapists, prostitutes, etc., and they stumble out of their little sheds or whatever, looking traumatized? (Would be good if one or two could fall into depression/commit suicide as a result = confirmation of their “subhuman” status? Rich social commentary.)

ALT: The scene where the one-armed old man, many months later, weeps in his room at the memory of being tricked into wearing a sex toy on his arm. Priceless!

SOUTHERN DINING SOCIETY SECTION: Do we have footage of the woman Borat identified as unattractive being consoled in her darkened living room later that night by her husband? Particularly good if, all her life, she’s fought the feeling that she was not attractive, and only recently has come to feel pretty, owing to the steady love of her husband, who does, in fact, find her pretty, in part because of her kindness to him and others in their community—and now all those wounds have been reopened! Also, although she is crying, she tries to cry quietly, so as not to alarm the kids. Super!

OK, so yet another humorless, uptight journalist has taken up a vendetta against Borat. It's funny how this movie has been accused as an elitist liberal mockery of middle America, and now it's an article from The New Yorker of all places that has come out against it. These so-called liberals are now coming to the aid of middle America, acting as if they were offended conservatives with, as usual, nothing better to do.

Do they not get the joke? Obviously not. Do you really think that the woman at the Southern Society Dinner doesn't realize his referral to her as unattractive was not serious? It was meant to illicit a reaction from her husband, as a joke from an oblivious and insensitive character.

And the rodeo scene, was everyone there agreeing with Borat's outrageous "May George Walter Bush drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq line?" Probably not. But most of them were. That's beside the point though. The point of Borat is that there is still rampant racism, bigotry, and ignorance in this country. And he exposes it brilliantly. Is it a blanket condemnation? No. Is it a warning? Very much so.